Wind damage to light aircraft stored in the open is notoriously common in part because the flying speed of a light plane is easily achieved in the winds of most thunderstorms. An aircraft that is tied down may even break its anchor cables during a storm because wings produce too much lift for the anchors to withstand. The lifting force on the wings may also cause the wings to suffer internal damage. Thus, aircraft are needlessly damaged or lost every year due to a failure of the tie-down cables. The problem is made worse since empty aircraft are especially vulnerable to damage because the weight of the empty aircraft is only a fraction of the gross weight. Moreover, adequate protection is often difficult to provide when the aircraft is not at its home base. To overcome these problems a development effort was undertaken to provide a removable device for reducing wing lift in the presence of a high wind. It was found that for such a device to be successful, it should be portable, collapsable, easily transported, inexpensive and should be highly effective if the wind is from the front of the wing, but preferably should become inactive when the wind is from the trailing edge of the wing. This is because a wind from the rear produces no lift. In addition, the device used for protecting the aircraft may be more subject to damage when the wind is from the rear. The major objective of the present invention is to provide a portable and low cost, yet effective system for reducing the opportunity for damage to parked aircraft during a windstorm while achieving the other aforementioned design objectives.
These and other more detailed specific objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description of the invention and in the figures which illustrate the invention by way of example.